i'm a Swiss girl planning on getting married to my American fiancé in November, in the US. We want to start our life together in Switzerland as soon as possible, but there are some things that are still unclear to me and i hope you guys can help me with it.
My fiancé was here on a tourist visa over the summer and spent almost all of his 90 days here, it resets on December 26th. Now when we get married the first thing we're doing is send in all the necessary documents to the responsible Swiss representation in the US to have the marriage registered in Switzerland. I live in Zürich and already had an appointment with the immigration office to figure out how to set up the family reunification process, and the guy told me he could enter Switzerland on a tourist visa once the marriage is registered here, and then i can notify the local authorities and apply for his B permit/D visa because he'll be legally allowed to stay when we're married even when the application is still pending. everything i read online though says we need to apply for a D visa first, while he's still in the US, and he needs to wait for the approval abroad before coming into Switzerland again. what are your experiences with this? i don't want to mess things up by not applying for the D visa right away, but i don't want him to be stuck in the US for however long it takes to have it approved either (several months?!), if he could spend that time in Switzerland with me instead.
oh, and another thing: i tried to read other threads on it but haven't really found a satisfying answer. what about the language requirements for a B permit when being married to a Swiss citizen? in the cantonal requirements it doesn't say anything about it, but it is mentioned in the national requirements, so i'm confused.
also, any personal experiences on how long it takes to get a marriage registered/getting a type D visa/B permit are appreciated.
Well, embassy staff aren’t always right. As far as I know Swiss nationals’ rules are the same, or almost the same, as the ones for EU nationals for family reunification, i.e. you need to show you can support him financially and also that your accommodation is big enough for both of you.
I certainly would go for getting the Type D visa beforehand - it will only be granted once the marriage is recognised and he’ll eligible for a permit under family reunification. It might be that you could do it the other way, but if not then he’s going to have to go back to the States, apply for the visa there and then wait for it to be approved/issued.
He can't come back as a tourist before Dec. 26, even if he's married to you, because of how the tourist rules work.
He'll either need the D visa in advance, or if you want to take a chance as a tourist, come after that date. I wouldn't recommend the tourist route, as most of the time we hear stories on EF that the person has to leave CH and get the D-visa back home, or they can stay but have to travel to Germany or France to get the visa stamped. Potentially more hassle and expense than it's worth.
If you're concerned about language requirements, register him for a German class and show that with your application for family reunification. Being registered for a class is sufficient for the first permit.
If you apply for the family reunification visa abroad, it doesn't seem like it is necessarily a problem to come to Switzerland on a tourist visa before the visa is granted. However your husband will typically have to leave Switzerland to actually get the visa. This would entail a trip to a nearby consulate In Germany, France or Italy.
Here's how it unfolded for us. I have Swiss citizenship. My wife applied for the family reunification visa in Canada (Swiss consulate in Vancouver) six weeks before our departure to Switzerland. Since we did not have a Swiss address we put a "temporary address" which was my Swiss cousin's address on the application (if you already live in Zurich this won't be an issue). My wife entered CH on a tourist visa. Something went screwy with our paperwork since the normal notification was never sent out to the address on the application. But when I finally pestered the responsible folks (Secrétariat d'Etat aux migrations ) they had already approved the visa and they immediately sent the paperwork to the cantonal authorities applicable to my new address (in Valais). Within a day we had the notification we needed. My wife called the consulate in Milan. Initially they said come the next day. However then they realised they needed my wife to request the consulate in Canada to send them some info. My wife called Canada, they transferred whatever was required and two days later she travelled to Milan and got the visa. Fortunately from Valais travel to Milan is not time consuming or expensive. As soon as she came back she took the visa to the local community as they are the ones who will in the end issue her permit.
None of the officials she or I dealt with raised any concerns about the fact that she was here on a tourist visa prior to the family reunification visa coming through
But as 3Wishes pointed out, he can’t come here befor the 26th December because of the 90 days in, 90 days out rule. So will not be able to come straight here after the wedding anyway.
well, he has 9 more days left of the 90/180; December 26th is the day he can come back and stay another 90 days. from what i'm getting now, it should be possible to apply for the D visa in the US, right after the wedding, and then once the marriage is registered he can wait for the visa to be approved while being in Switzerland and pick up the visa in a nearby embassy, even if his tourist visa runs out in that time?
@mobk was your marriage already registered in Switzerland though? or where did you get married? it's good to hear it didn't take more than 6 weeks.
Erm no, I don't think so. That could cause him big problems. If he is seen to have over-stayed when they come to issue D-visa, they might refuse to issue it at all or when he leaves Switzerland to go and collect it he might get fined/banned.
Register the marriage with the relevant authorities ASAP after the wedding. For me that was the Swiss consulate in Canada as I was not resident in Switzerland. For you it will be the authorities in your commune I guess. Registering at the consulate was simple. I just sent them the documents. It was ages ago that I registered but I don't recall it taking long at all.
I assume that your husband can start his family reunification application as soon as the marriage is registered.
I agree with the above posters that your husband should not flout the tourist visa rules. So he should come back to Switzerland AFTER the 26th with a new 90 day period.
It would be (or at VERY least might be) a problem if his tourist visa ran out while waiting for the family reunification visa here. I don't think that is super likely to happen though. We were quoted a processing time for the family reunification visa of 6-15 weeks. Assuming the visa application goes in some time before Dec 26th then his tourist visa wouldn't run out till more than 15 weeks after the application.
For us the total time from application in Canada to receipt in Milan was slightly less than 15 weeks. It maybe could have been less as it seems the authorities approved the application but omitted to send out a notification till I followed up.
I will add that the official advice we received from the Swiss consulate in Canada was that "it is not recommended to travel to Switzerland on a tourist visa while applying for a family reunification visa". So that is the official advice.
The reality I experienced was that none of the community, cantonal or federal authorities that my wife or I spoke to or emailed with seemed to care at all that she was here on a valid tourist visa while awaiting the family reunification visa.
I definitely wouldn't recommend overstaying the tourist visa if that eventuality were to happen. Better for him to just leave for the remaining weeks it took.
Just to clarify - Six weeks was the time between my wife's application for the family reunification visa and our whole family leaving to Switzerland. The total elapsed time from visa application at the Swiss Consulate in Vancouver to visa received at Swiss Consulate in Milan was just under 15 weeks.
My wife's tourist visa here was still valid when the family reunification visa came through but we'd been here long enough that we were getting nervous about that running out.